List changes and trade bait

[Mel_C]

I read on the weekend that Lumumba met with Roos at a cafe near where I live. Once our season is over I will keep an eye out for any of our players meeting Roos ????.

[goswannies]

I think the signing of Craig Bird is the signing that has altered the off season balance. This signing has also changed the Tom Mitchell situation in my opinion. They could have chosen to leave Craig Bird unsigned (Mumford situation), knowing they had Tom Mitchell to come in and permanently play his position. Instead they contracted Bird for another two seasons meaning now the club has four very good pure inside midfielders to call upon (Parker, Mitchell, Bird and Kennedy). You then have senior players like Kieran Jack, Ben Mcglynn , Jarrad Mcveigh and Daniel Hannebery who can play as inside and outside midfielders. Jake Lloyd and Harry Cunningham will also develop their inside games over the next two seasons.

John Longmire since round four has only played a maximum of three of (Kennedy, Parker, Bird and Mitchell). His preferred inside three are Kennedy, Parker and Bird. I think the signing of Craig Bird was a sign for Tom that in the short term the club is backing Craig Bird.

Tom may have a good pre-season and one of (Kennedy, Parker or Bird) may have an injury interrupted year. This would lead to Tom having an excellent break out year. On the other hand Kennedy, Parker and Bird may maintain their excellent physical resilience and high standards, which would lead to Tom playing more NEAFL time with the occasional senior run.

Having a situation where the Swans are playing either Bird or Mitchell in the NEAFL in 2015 for extended periods of time is nothing short of wasteful and has the potential to effect the medium or longer term monetary and reputational circumstances of those players.
Bird or Mitchell also have Heeney and Hewitt who will improve and start putting some midfield pressure on in 2015.

Having recently signed Bird, I think the best thing for Mitchell is to find a club who really need his talents and will allow him if fit, to play 22 high quality games. Young recently drafted inside midfielders such as Hewitt and Heeney should be the back-ups for Kennedy, Parker, and Bird. Not Mitchell as a 4th year player in 2015, who is ready to break out.

The Swans will also pick up a draft pick between positions 8-15 for Mitchell.

I hope I?m making some sense and not upsetting people.

No offence M80 (kinda sounds like a pirate greeting doesn't it? M80 ... "matey" ) but is there any chance we can leave the Mitchell trade talk for about 3 weeks? He's got a NEAFL Granny in a week & then possibly an AFL Prelim & Granny thereafter. Your views are pretty well established, but for 3 weeks we have more pressing (& exciting) issues than whether Mitchell &/or Bird aren't going to get enough match time in 2015 for their liking

[mcs]

Given the mythical Premiership 'window' is well and truly open now, I would expect it'll take a very good offer for the club to think about letting Mitchell go.

On paper, Heeney/Hewitt can provide backup. But neither has played an AFL game, and whilst Heeney looks a fantastic talent, as Mitchell has shown, that doesn't automatically translate to ongoing high performance at AFL level. I

feel, given that surely we think we can win the flag in 2015-16-17 with basically the current group (bar a few replacements of older players), that it would be unlikely we would trade away some strong depth (even though many would say Mitchell will be top 22 - lets just assume he is a depth player per say), unless we were getting handsomely rewarded in terms of draft picks, or getting a player in return to fill another gap. All it would take is a couple of bad injuries and we would be looking very thin in midfield.

This may however be a risk the club is willing to take - given the ongoing ability of a lot of our midfielders to generally stay pretty fit. It will be interesting to see what might happen in the trade period - although I still fancy that the club ahs little interest in trading mitchell and will tell others that he is not on the table should they ask about his availability.

[Matt80]

MCS, I see us being in a Premiership window for most of the duration of Buddy's contract.

The important thing is to manage the next inflow of potentially great midfielders (Hewitt, Heeney Mills and Dunkley). Those guys will need to be playing regular senior games in the early part of their careers to develop fully. Just think of the early senior games that Kerr and Judd revived early in their careers. This built the West Coast midfield into the best that's ever been assembled.

The pressing list management question is " how do we stay in top 4 premiership contention in 2015-2017, while developing the midfield power house for 2018-2023, while Buddy is still there?

Their needs to be a balance and senior games need to be driven into Heeney, Mills, Dunkley and Hewitt. There may be some unpopular and tough decisions made by the Swans at the end of 2014, 2015, and 2016!

[ScottH]

I'd prefer to keep this thread on ice for 2-3 weeks.
Then when the footy and hopefully fanfare is over, we can talk trade!!

More important things to worry about ATM.

[goswannies]

I'd prefer to keep this thread on ice for 2-3 weeks.
Then when the footy and hopefully fanfare is over, we can talk trade!!

More important things to worry about ATM.

+1

[Captain]

Malceski/Mitchell for Pick 2.

I would do that.

[0918330512]

No offence M80 but is there any chance we can leave the Mitchell trade talk for about 3 weeks? He's got a NEAFL Granny in a week & then possibly an AFL Prelim & Granny thereafter. Your views are pretty well established, but for 3 weeks we have more pressing (& exciting) issues than whether Mitchell &/or Bird aren't going to get enough match time in 2015 for their liking

I'd prefer to keep this thread on ice for 2-3 weeks.
Then when the footy and hopefully fanfare is over, we can talk trade!!
More important things to worry about ATM.

+1

[ScottH]

+1

Show how much I read of this thread.
Great minds/Fools never differ!!

No offence M80 but is there any chance we can leave the Mitchell trade talk for about 3 weeks? He's got a NEAFL Granny in a week & then possibly an AFL Prelim & Granny thereafter. Your views are pretty well established, but for 3 weeks we have more pressing (& exciting) issues than whether Mitchell &/or Bird aren't going to get enough match time in 2015 for their liking

I'd prefer to keep this thread on ice for 2-3 weeks.
Then when the footy and hopefully fanfare is over, we can talk trade!!
More important things to worry about ATM.

[Swansongster]

Off of used to be standard in English; the Merriam-Webster Dictionary of English Usage starts off with a Shakespearean usage in his book Henry VI, Page 98 "A fall off of "[1592] and continues with Pepys [1668] and Bunyan [1678]. In the last century, they show it used by Hemingway, Faulkner, and Harry Truman, among others. So if it is making a comeback, it?s no harbinger of linguistic doom, just a return to form.
There is nothing linguistically or grammatically wrong with off of. It?s nonstandard in some dialects and informal in most, so you should probably avoid it if you?re concerned about your writing seeming formal. But when formality isn?t a concern, use it as you see fit.
So I suppose being accused of reviving the use of the English language as employed by such luminaries as those named above is not the insult it was intended to be. However I do resent being told by narrow-minded rationalizers that I may not employ the language of William Shakespeare ,George Bernard Shaw and those well known Americans Richards and Jagger.

So Bill the Bard was perhaps the 1st to use "Off of"?

We owe so much to this literary giant

I used to love watching this show with my kids and some of their songs are fantastic. Like this one.

Horrible Histories William Shakespeare Song - YouTube

[Go Swannies]

+1

Me too namesake. Can we lock it Scott?

[Matt80]

Me too namesake. Can we lock it Scott?

This is a thread about the future makeup of the Swans list. Why should it be locked?

Each day there is an announcement or speculation that someone is moving on from their club (Ryder, Frawley, Neville Jetta, Lumumba). What is the harm in strategizing and investigating these possibilities?

This is one of the most enjoyable threads as we all have the chance to be a fantasy Kinnear Beatson.

I think even Kinnear trumped our biggest 2013 fantasies with the Buddy recruitment, which no poster put on the agenda.

[mocaholic]

Off of ....
... and those well known Americans Richards and Jagger.

Despite being a fantastic line, I think you'll find they're English.

Yours in pedantry (and on your cloud),
moc

[0918330512]

This is a thread about the future makeup of the Swans list. Why should it be locked?

Each day there is an announcement or speculation that someone is moving on from their club (Ryder, Frawley, Neville Jetta, Lumumba). What is the harm in strategizing and investigating these possibilities?

This is one of the most enjoyable threads as we all have the chance to be a fantasy Kinnear Beatson.

I think even Kinnear trumped our biggest 2013 fantasies with the Buddy recruitment, which no poster put on the agenda.

Well, for one, 2013 finished early for the Swans, so Kinnear could start recruitment talk a little earlier. 2014 is still going.

It hasn't been suggested the thread be closed, just on hold while RWOers concentrate on the arguably bigger issue of the current premiership window being contested.
I suspect that some RWOers might feel a bit negative about talk of trading players who are still trying desperately to earn a spot in a potential 2014 premiership team.

[Auntie.Gerald]

i dont agree this thread should be locked .......except a few posters trying to hi-jack it away from what it should be ie rumours on trades etc !!!!

I dont think there is a fair and reasonable basis to do that......... but if the moderators of this public forum do think that it should be a lock, I would like to know the justification ???

I think the fair and reasonable action by those not interested in trade talk and rumours is to not pop into this thread which is clearly marked on what subject it is.

THE PLAYER MOVEMENT RUMOURS ARE RIFE !